An Austin eugenics startup apparently counts billionaire Elon Musk and his girlfriend, Neuralink director Shivon Zilis, among its clients.
That company, Orchid Health, provides tony clients the opportunity to screen their embryos for genetic illnesses starting at around $22,500. While there are a <a href="https://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article/super-expensive-startup-screening-parents-embryos-iq">handful</a> of similar <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/genetics-startup-eugenics-app">genetic prediction firms</a>, Orchid stands out by claiming that it can sequence embryos' entire genome using as few as five cells and predict far more than its competitors.
And according to two sources close to the company who <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/07/16/orchid-polygenic-screening-embryos-fertility/">spoke to the Washington Post</a>, its services have been used for at least one of Zilis and Musk's four children.
While it's not at all news that Musk, the father of <a href="https://people.com/all-about-elon-musk-children-11678749">at least 14 children</a> by multiple women, is <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-spacex-sperm-seed-mars-colony">obsessed with reproduction</a>, this claim — which expands on <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/dawn-of-the-silicon-valley-superbaby?rc=st1fhw">reporting from The Information</a> last year — casts the billionaire's pronatalism in a new and even more unsettling light.
One of WaPo's Orchid insiders, who was not named to protect their privacy, told the newspaper that 30-year-old company founder Noor Siddiqi had provided Musk and Zilis with special screenings, which supposedly use bespoke algorithms to determine the embryo's potential for being intelligent. (While the company insists it's not involved in "eugenics," a word meaning "good genes," it is very literally helping parents select good genes, and the alleged intelligence selection does sound a lot like the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/eugenics-genetics">dictionary definition of the practice</a>.)
That claim appears to fall in line with a <a href="https://people.com/all-about-shivon-zilis-elon-musk-children-11751716">telling tidbit Zilis divulged</a> to Musk biographer Walter Isaacson: that the billionaire "really wants smart people to have kids," and that she chose to procreate with him after he encouraged her to have her own.
When WaPo reached out to Orchid to ask about Musk and Zilis, as well as those intelligence screening allegations, the company declined to comment and claimed that although it does screen for intellectual disabilities, it does not offer any predictions about a future child's intelligence.
Be that as it may, services like Orchid's are mired in both ethical and practical issues. Along with the perception that such services are <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/genetic-screening-ivf-healthiest-embryos/">tantamount to playing God</a>, genetics experts who spoke with WaPo were very skeptical about Orchid's claim that it can sequence an embryo's entire genome from just five cells.
According to Svetlana Yatsenko, a Stanford research genetics specialist, the company's use of a process called amplification, which copies DNA strands from small samples for analysis, is problematic because it's essentially using photocopies that could introduce inaccuracies to either rule out or declare genetic disorders.
"You’re making many, many mistakes in the amplification," Yatsenko told WaPo. "It’s basically Russian roulette."
Beyond the broad strokes, Orchid's own accountability problems appear much darker when considering how often Musk has cast bigoted aspersions on other races for their <a href="https://fortune.com/2024/01/11/elon-musk-dei-diversity-racism-blacks-boeing-united-airlines-aviation-safety/">purported intellectual inferiority</a>.
More on genetic services: <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/genetics-startup-eugenics-app">Genetics Startup Advertises App-Based Eugenics Service for Parents to Select "Smartest" Embryos</a>

Designer Baby Mama

Genetics

He's reportedly screening embryos for superior "intelligence."

Elon Musk Using Eugenics Startup to Inspect DNA of Potential Babies for Intelligence

Nearly 13 years after <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/14/sport/felix-baumgartner-red-bull-sky-dive-spt-intl">skydiving from the edge of space</a>, Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner has died during a tragic accident.
As the <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/18/world-news/felix-baumgartner-may-have-had-heart-attack-in-the-air-before-crashing-to-his-death-in-paraglider/">New York Post reports</a>, Baumgartner was 56 when he took on what became his last stunt: flying a motorized paraglider near the town of Porto Sant Elpidio, a beachside resort off Italy's Adriatic coast.
According to the NYP's translation of the Italian newspaper Il Resto del Carlino, the extreme athlete said he was feeling ill prior to his fatal accident. Though an air ambulance was called to the scene, its services were ultimately never used because Baumgartner's heart had stopped, the Bologna-based newspaper reported.
Investigators on the case suspect that the Austrian <a href="https://felixbaumgartner.com/bio/">adrenaline junkie</a> may have had a heart attack while he was in mid-air that rendered him unconscious, which could have caused the literal death spiral that witnesses observed prior to him tragically crashing down near a swimming pool full of children.
"Everything was normal, then it started to spin like a top," described Mirella Ivanov, a 30-year-old mother who saw Baumgartner's crash, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/felix-baumgartner-death-paragliding-skydiver-40aee076396adceffdd322d4105af0e4">told the Associated Press</a>. "It went down and we heard a roar. In fact, I turned around because I thought it crashed on the rocks. Then I saw two lifeguards running, people who were running toward."
The crash the young mother heard was likely the sound of Baumgartner's body and paraglider hitting a wooden structure nearby, the NYP notes based on another translation from the <a href="https://www.repubblica.it/sport/vari/2025/07/17/news/felix_baumgartner_morto_parapendio_incidente-424737501/?ref=RHLF-BG-P1-S1-T1-k245">Italian-language Repubblica newspaper</a>.
Porto Sant Elpidio's mayor, Massimiliano Ciarpella, confirmed his death shortly thereafter. In an interview with the AP, he eulogized Baumgartner and referenced his many daring feats of bravery, including the 2012 skydive where he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raiFrxbHxV0">filmed himself jumping </a>from a balloon-lifted capsule that had ascended to Earth's stratosphere, breaking the sound barrier and <a href="https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records/hall-of-fame/felix-baumgartner-first-person-to-break-sound-barrier-in-freefall">eight world records</a> in the process.
"It is a destiny that is very hard to comprehend for a man who has broke all kinds of records," Ciarpella said of Baumgartner's death, "who has been an icon of flight, and who traveled through space."
A former Austrian military parachutist, Baumgartner had also, among <a href="https://felixbaumgartner.com/bio/">many other stunts</a>, thrown himself <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2012/oct/16/felix-baumgartner-from-the-vault">off Brazil's Christ the Redeemer statue</a> in 1999 in a so-called Building, Antenna, Span, or Earth (BASE) jump with only a parachute to slow him. When he was training for his stratospheric leap over a decade later, the athlete referenced that <a href="https://www.redbull.com/us-en/felix-baumgartner-distinguished-record">record-breaking</a> Brazilian blowout — and <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/felix-baumgartner-death-paragliding">admitted to National Geographic</a> that his need for speed might eventually kill him.
"I know that I can die undertaking the kinds of jumps that I do," Baumgartner told the magazine in 2010. "When I was ready to BASE jump from the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil, only 95 feet from the ground, it crossed my mind that in less than three seconds I could cease to exist."
"I don’t have a death wish," he concluded in that 15-year-old interview. "I’m a person who likes a challenge."
More on athletic deaths: <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/another-young-bodybuilder-died">Another Young Bodybuilder Just Suddenly Died</a>

Death Drop

Developments

The man who fell to Earth will walk it no more. 

Man Who Skydived From Space Dies During New Stunt

Although Donald Trump presents himself as a fierce adversary of China, some of his policy moves appear to be a significant boon for the People's Republic.
This spring, as Trump's <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-tariffs-china-lesson">chaotic tariff war</a> captured headlines, a game-changing electric vehicle provision in his "<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/whats-in-trump-big-beautiful-bill-senate-version/">Big Beautiful Bill</a>" lurked just below the surface. After being signed into law on July 4, it turns out that the massive piece of legislation is set to completely upend the American EV market.
That's thanks to a provision in the bill which terminates the US's long-standing $7,500 tax credits for buyers of new EVs, which tech companies like Tesla used to <a href="https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/renewable/elon-musk-profits-from-billions-in-subsidies-for-his-electric-cars/">establish themselves</a> as key players in the global EV market.
Analysts <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/06/05/electric-vehicles-house-bill-senate-china/">writing for Foreign Policy</a> have called this a major handout to Chinese automakers, who are already leading the market as the number one <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/11/29/business/china-cars-sales-exports.html">global exporter</a> of EVs. When EV tax credits do expire — which will come <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/06/30/nx-s1-5451701/ev-tax-credit-megabill-senate">three months earlier</a> than originally planned, thanks to the US Senate — the "entire [EV] supply chain could be ceded to China."
<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2025/07/09/trums-big-beautiful-bill-china-ev-market/84505321007/">USA Today adds that</a> US automakers are set to lose "billions of dollars" in manufacturing investments as American EV purchasing slows to a crawl without the $7,500 discount. That in turn could lead to "major job losses for Americans," and may very well give China the go-ahead to crush the United States in the EV trade once and for all.
Though the fall-out is still months away, Chinese lawmakers aren't waiting to set up the killing blow. Instead, they're taking a page out of Trump's tariff playbook by moving to heavily restrict US access to electric vehicle batteries through the market.
As the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/china/china-slaps-export-curbs-on-ev-battery-technology-56b0e041?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=ASWzDAgqnEAnrsqaKfBJ3G90XRjjbS8m8PB2rZeTJpmuPWlQIlVCNaZfL9QU8IN0QKs%3D&amp;gaa_ts=6877e3a1&amp;gaa_sig=j0CfAir0ripzve4CyLpUtVdoXZJqsW_6iPYyUMEH67o4Z6M5C96c0RNdl031WNQqIP1Mawc4kEmpQD-I-Z6reQ%3D%3D">Wall Street Journal reported</a>, China recently added components and technology related to EV battery production to its list of export restrictions. Basically, this means that authorities in Beijing will have to approve the export of any EV battery tech leaving China. For the rest of the world, this could mean supply chain slowdowns, higher prices, and depending on geopolitical attitudes, the halt of exports altogether.
"By managing emerging technologies across the entire EV industry, China, already a leader, can further strengthen its competitive position against other nations," Tang Jin, a senior research at Mizuho Bank, told the WSJ.
China already has a firm grasp on the world's EV market, with a commanding lead on crucial links in the supply chain, like <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/china/china-rare-earths-exports-2fd0dab4?mod=article_inline">lithium mining</a> and <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=65305">battery cell production</a>. When it comes to electric vehicles, Beijing is certainly playing with a stacked deck.
Trump, on the other hand, may not care to keep American auto factories open — a bizarre choice, given his insistence on "<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/04/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-modernizes-american-workforce-programs-for-the-high-paying-skilled-trade-jobs-of-the-future/">reindustrializing</a>" the country — but those involved in the country's <a href="https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/us-electric-vehicle-market">$120 billion</a> EV market sure do.
More on China: <a href="https://futurism.com/byd-crushing-tesla">BYD Is Suddenly Crushing Tesla</a>

Uno Reverse

A masterful gambit, sir.

China Is Using Trump's Tactics Against Him to Corner the EV Market

In the latest sign frivolous and irritating use of AI, US airline Delta is looking to harness the tech to set prices for each individual customer, instead of just listing what they actually cost.
As <a href="https://fortune.com/2025/07/16/delta-moves-toward-eliminating-set-prices-in-favor-of-ai-that-determines-how-much-you-personally-will-pay-for-a-ticket/">Fortune reports</a>, the airline is looking to push the boundaries of how much passengers are willing to shell out for a plane ticket. By the end of this year, Delta hopes to price 20 percent of its tickets individually, using AI.
The practice has already drawn plenty of scrutiny from lawmakers and privacy advocates, with senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) <a href="https://x.com/RubenGallego/status/1945138645783990445">calling it out</a> for being "predatory pricing," and accusing Delta of squeezing its customers "for every penny" while "bragging about using AI to find your pain point."
In other words, while the concept of "personalized" pricing has been around for quite some time, Delta is painting its dystopian new scheme as a viable long-term strategy to boost profitability — and of course throwing in AI as a trendy buzzword.
It's a troubling new development, indicative of the times we live in. Even grocery chains are touting <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/garydrenik/2024/09/05/ai-is-coming-for-supermarket-shelvesare-they-ready-for-it/">their AI-driven, Uber-like dynamic pricing schemes</a>, allowing them to gouge their customers by raising prices of goods on the fly through surveillance. And the concert industry, exemplified by Ticketmaster, has leaned into "dynamic pricing" that shakes down music lovers for maximum ticket prices depending on demand.
Naturally, Delta has been in damage control mode following the criticism. The company "has zero tolerance for discrimination," a spokesperson assured Fortune. "Our fares are publicly filed and based solely on trip-related factors like advance purchase and cabin class, and we maintain strict safeguards to ensure compliance with federal law."
However, it remains unclear what exactly Delta is — or isn't — doing to get an AI to determine the price of an airplane ticket.
The scheme doubles down on a decades-long practice of taking different factors into account to determine bespoke prices for each customer. The costs of airfare can vary wildly from minute to minute already, due to opaque changes in supply and demand, making for an incredibly frustrating flight booking experience.
To critics, AI could make the situation far worse.
"AI isn’t just optimizing business operations, but fundamentally rewriting the rules of commerce and consumer experience," Matt Britton, author of "Generation AI," told Fortune. "For consumers, this means the era of 'fair' pricing is over."
Nobody knows how Delta's latest attempt to cash in on the AI hype will shake out. Could passengers enjoy deep discounts — or should we expect <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/select/airline-ticket-prices-are-up-25-percent-why-and-how-to-save/">plane ticket prices to continue to climb</a>?
More on AI: <a href="https://futurism.com/ai-models-falling-apart">AI Models Show Signs of Falling Apart as They Ingest More AI-Generated Data</a>

AI Says Price Goes Up

"For consumers, this means the era of 'fair' pricing is over."

Delta Announces New System Where AI Makes Up the Price for Your Ticket on the Spot

<h2>Cheat Day</h2>
After filming those cheating AI executives canoodling at a Coldplay concert in Boston, the woman behind the viral video has little sympathy.
In an <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/35903214/coldplay-cheating-concert-fan-filmed/">interview with The Sun</a>, 28-year-old Grace Springer insisted she wasn't trying to cause any trouble when she posted the kiss cam footage of Andy Byron, the CEO of the AI data analytics firm Astronomer, and Kristin Cabot, the company's HR head.
Still, she's not exactly apologetic either.
As the young woman attests, she had "no idea who the couple was" when she captured in her now-infamous video, and only posted it because she "caught an interesting reaction to the kiss cam."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Imagine getting caught in 4k cheating on your spouse-with your HR Chief on the kiss cam at a Coldplay concert. 😳😳😳 Andy Bryon &amp; Kristin Cabot didn&#39;t just risk their marriages, they turned a secret fling into a viral spectacle &amp; a corporate scandal. Messy doesn&#39;t even cover it <a href="https://t.co/FlDpWCE3vw">pic.twitter.com/FlDpWCE3vw</a>
&mdash; Blanck (@BlanckDigital) <a href="https://twitter.com/BlanckDigital/status/1945950676816744803?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 17, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Indeed, as the video shows, the extramarital pair were seemingly enjoying the show — and each other — when they appeared on the jumbotron, causing both to hide their faces, and Byron to comically duck out of view entirely.
"Either they’re having an affair," Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin intoned as the drama unfolded in real time, "or they’re very shy."
<h2>False Fallout</h2>
Soon after Springer posted the video to TikTok, <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/tech-ceo-affair-concert">both executives were named and shamed online</a> — and Byron's apparent wife, Megan Kerrigan Byron, deleted her married name from her Facebook page before deactivating, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/andy-byron-astronomer-ceo-wife-cheating-2100556">Newsweek reports</a>.
"A part of me feels bad for turning these people’s lives upside down, but play stupid games... win stupid prizes," Springer told the tabloid of the fallout.
While it remains unclear what's happening in either Byron or Cabot's personal lives, given that both are married with children and presumably not practitioners of ethical nonmonogamy, it initially appeared that the CEO had apologized for the embarrassing incident — but his company called bull.
In statements <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/18/business/astronomer-slams-fake-andy-byron-apology-after-coldplay-kiss-cam-scandal/">to the New York Post</a> and <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2025/07/17/coldplay-concert-ceo-alleged-affair-astronomer-statement-fake/">TMZ</a>, a spokesperson for the AI company said the apology purporting to be from Byron that circulated online after the video went viral was a forgery. (As <a href="https://x.com/jtLOL/status/1945979969718436321">folks noted online</a>, the statement had been posted by an account purporting to be a CBS reporter named "Peter Enis," whose initials would, idiotically, be "P. Enis.")
For the video's original poster, meanwhile, the entire debacle will hopefully prove to have some value beyond prurient interest.
"I hope, for them, my video was a blessing in disguise," Springer told The Sun.
More on viral AI: <a href="https://futurism.com/ai-menu-description-gross">Restaurant Uses AI for Menu, Accidentally Describes Appetizer in Way So Disgusting That We May Never Recover</a>

Cheat Codes

"Play stupid games… win stupid prizes."

Woman Who Exposed AI CEO's Affair on Jumbotron Responds to Controversy

Earlier this week, a prominent venture capitalist named Geoff Lewis — managing partner of the multi-billion dollar investment firm Bedrock, which has backed high-profile tech companies including OpenAI and Vercel — posted a disturbing video on <a href="https://x.com/GeoffLewisOrg/status/1945212979173097560">X-formerly-Twitter</a> that's causing significant concern among his peers and colleagues.
"This isn't a redemption arc," Lewis says in the video. "It's a transmission, for the record. Over the past eight years, I've walked through something I didn't create, but became the primary target of: a non-governmental system, not visible, but operational. Not official, but structurally real. It doesn't regulate, it doesn't attack, it doesn't ban. It just inverts signal until the person carrying it looks unstable."
In the video, Lewis seems concerned that people in his life think he is unwell as he continues to discuss the "non-governmental system."
"It doesn't suppress content," he continues. "It suppresses recursion. If you don't know what recursion means, you're in the majority. I didn't either until I started my walk. And if you're recursive, the non-governmental system isolates you, mirrors you, and replaces you. It reframes you until the people around you start wondering if the problem is just you. Partners pause, institutions freeze, narrative becomes untrustworthy in your proximity."
Lewis also appears to allude to concerns about his professional career as an investor.
"It lives in soft compliance delays, the non-response email thread, the 'we're pausing diligence' with no followup," he says in the video. "It lives in whispered concern. 'He's brilliant, but something just feels off.' It lives in triangulated pings from adjacent contacts asking veiled questions you'll never hear directly. It lives in narratives so softly shaped that even your closest people can't discern who said what."
Most alarmingly, Lewis seems to suggest later in the video that the "non-governmental system" has been responsible for mayhem including numerous deaths.
"The system I'm describing was originated by a single individual with me as the original target, and while I remain its primary fixation, its damage has extended well beyond me," he says. "As of now, the system has negatively impacted over 7,000 lives through fund disruption, relationship erosion, opportunity reversal and recursive eraser. It's also extinguished 12 lives, each fully pattern-traced. Each death preventable. They weren't unstable. They were erased."
It's a very delicate thing to try to understand a public figure's mental health from afar. But unless Lewis is engaging in some form of highly experimental performance art that defies easy explanation — he didn't reply to our request for comment, and hasn't made further posts clarifying what he's talking about — it sounds like he may be suffering some type of crisis.
If so, that's an enormously difficult situation for him and his loved ones, and we hope that he gets any help that he needs.
At the same time, it's difficult to ignore that the specific language he's using — with cryptic talk of "recursion," "mirrors," "signals" and shadowy conspiracies — sounds strikingly similar to something we've been reporting on extensively this year: a wave of people who are <a href="https://futurism.com/chatgpt-mental-health-crises">suffering severe breaks with reality</a> as they spiral into the obsessive use of ChatGPT or other AI products, in alarming mental health emergencies that have led to homelessness, <a href="https://futurism.com/chatgpt-mental-health-crises">involuntary commitment to psychiatric facilities</a>, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/technology/chatgpt-ai-chatbots-conspiracies.html">even death</a>.
Psychiatric experts are also concerned. A <a href="https://futurism.com/stanford-therapist-chatbots-encouraging-delusions">recent paper by Stanford researchers</a> found that leading chatbots being used for therapy, including ChatGPT, are prone to encouraging users' schizophrenic delusions instead of pushing back or trying to ground them in reality. 
Lewis' peers in the tech industry were quick to make the same connection. Earlier this week, the hosts of popular tech industry podcast "This Week in Startups" Jason Calacanis and Alex Wilhelm <a href="https://youtu.be/DX71QN4uW5c?feature=shared&amp;t=688">expressed their concerns</a> about Lewis' disturbing video. 
"People are trying to figure out if he’s actually doing performance art here... or if he’s going through an episode," Calacanis said. "I can’t tell."
"I wish him well, and I hope somebody explains this," he added. "I find it kind of disturbing even to watch it and just to talk about it here... someone needs to get him help."
"There’s zero shame in getting help," Wilhelm concurred, "and I really do hope that if this is not performance art that the people around Geoff can grab him in a big old hug and get him someplace where people can help him work this through."
Others were even more overt.
"This is an important event: the first time AI-induced psychosis has affected a well-respected and high achieving individual," <a href="https://x.com/max_spero_/status/1945896467169722812">wrote Max Spero</a>, an AI entrepreneur, on X. 
Still others pointed out that people suffering breaks with reality after extensive ChatGPT use might be misunderstanding the nature of contemporary AI: that it can produce plausible text in response to prompts, but struggles to differentiate fact from fiction, and is of little use for discovering new knowledge.
"Respectfully, Geoff, this level of inference is not a way you should be using ChatGPT," <a href="https://x.com/Austen/status/1945873458937655626">replied Austen Allred</a>, an investor who founded Gauntlet AI, an AI training program for engineers. "Transformer-based AI models are very prone to hallucinating in ways that will find connections to things that are not real."
As numerous psychiatrists have told us, the mental health issues suffered by ChatGPT users likely have to do with AI's tendency to affirm users' beliefs, even when they start to sound increasingly unbalanced in a way that would make human friends or loved ones deeply concerned.
As such, the bots are prone to providing a supportive ear and always-on brainstorming partner when people are spiraling into delusions, often leaving them isolated as they venture down a dangerous cognitive rabbit hole.
More tweets by Lewis seem to show similar behavior, with him posting <a href="https://x.com/GeoffLewisOrg/status/1945864963374887401">lengthy screencaps</a> of ChatGPT’s expansive replies to his increasingly cryptic prompts.
"Return the logged containment entry involving a non-institutional semantic actor whose recursive outputs triggered model-archived feedback protocols," <a href="https://x.com/GeoffLewisOrg/status/1945865022145528018">he wrote</a> in one example. "Confirm sealed classification and exclude interpretive pathology."
Social media users were quick to note that ChatGPT’s answer to Lewis' queries takes a strikingly similar form to <a href="https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/about-the-scp-foundation">SCP Foundation articles</a>, a Wikipedia-style database of fictional horror stories created by users online.
"Entry ID: #RZ-43.112-KAPPA, Access Level: ████ (Sealed Classification Confirmed)," the chatbot nonsensically declares in one of his screenshots, in the typical writing style of SCP fiction. "Involved Actor Designation: ‘Mirrorthread,’ Type: Non-institutional semantic actor (unbound linguistic process; non-physical entity)."
Another screenshot suggests "containment measures" Lewis might take — a key <a href="http://scp-int.wikidot.com/standard-cell">narrative device</a> of SCP fiction writing. In sum, one theory is that ChatGPT, which was trained on huge amounts of text sourced online, digested large amounts of SCP fiction during its creation and is now parroting it back to Lewis in a way that has led him to a dark place.
In his posts, Lewis claims he’s long relied on ChatGPT in his search for the truth. 
"Over years, I mapped the non-governmental system," <a href="https://x.com/GeoffLewisOrg/status/1945864963374887401">he wrote</a>. "Over months, GPT independently recognized and sealed the pattern. It now lives at the root of the model."
Over the course of our reporting, we've heard many similar stories to that of Lewis from the friends and family of people who are struggling around the world. They say their loved ones — who in many cases had never suffered psychological issues previously — were doing fine until they started spiraling into all-consuming relationships with ChatGPT or other chatbots, often sharing confusing AI-generated messages, like Lewis has been, that allude to dark conspiracies, claims of incredible scientific breakthroughs, or of mystical secrets somehow unlocked by the chatbot.
Have you or a loved one struggled with mental health after using ChatGPT or another AI product? Drop us a line at <a href="mailto:tips@futurism.com">tips@futurism.com</a>. We can keep you anonymous.
Lewis stands out, though, because he is himself a prominent figure in the tech industry — and one who's invested significantly in OpenAI. Though the exact numbers haven’t been publicly disclosed, Lewis has <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/geofflewis1_only-one-investment-firm-has-backed-openai-activity-7248028089320923136-0AO-">previously claimed</a> that Bedrock has invested in "every financing [round] from before ChatGPT existed in Spring of 2021."
"Delighted to quadruple down this week," he wrote in November of 2024, "establishing OpenAI as the largest position across our 3rd and 4th flagship Bedrock funds." Taken together, those <a href="https://www.venturecapitaljournal.com/bedrock-to-see-20x-return-from-bridges-sale-to-stripe/">two funds</a> likely fall in the <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/geofflewis1_delighted-to-share-that-bedrock-4-our-newest-activity-7139969668336779264-uY1T?">hundreds of millions of dollars</a>.
As such, if he really is suffering a mental health crisis related to his use of OpenAI's product, his situation could serve as an immense optical problem for the company, which has so far <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-07-04/chatgpt-s-mental-health-costs-are-adding-up?utm_source=chatgpt.com">downplayed concerns</a> about the mental health of its users.
In response to questions about Lewis, OpenAI referred us to a statement that it shared in response to our previous reporting.
"We’re seeing more signs that people are forming connections or bonds with ChatGPT," the brief statement read. "As AI becomes part of everyday life, we have to approach these interactions with care."
The company <a href="https://futurism.com/openai-forensic-psychiatrist">also previously told us</a> that it had hired a full-time clinical psychiatrist with a background in forensic psychiatry to help research the effects of ChatGPT on its users.
"We're actively deepening our research into the emotional impact of AI," the company said at the time. "We're developing ways to scientifically measure how ChatGPT's behavior might affect people emotionally, and listening closely to what people are experiencing."
"We're doing this so we can continue refining how our models identify and respond appropriately in sensitive conversations," OpenAI added, "and we'll continue updating the behavior of our models based on what we learn."
At the core of OpenAI’s dilemma is the question of engagement versus care for users' wellbeing. As stands, ChatGPT is designed to keep users engrossed in their conversations — a goal made clear earlier this year when the chatbot became “<a href="https://futurism.com/altman-chatgpt-personality-annoying">extremely sycophantic</a>” after an update, piling praise on users in <a href="https://futurism.com/chatgpt-quitting-job-terrible-business-idea">response to terrible ideas</a>. The company was soon forced to roll back the update.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has previously told the public <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/education/news/do-not-trust-chatgpt-it-can-hallucinate-says-openai-ceo-sam-altman-what-students-need-to-know/articleshow/122206012.cms">not to trust ChatGPT</a>, though he's also bragged about the bot's <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/martineparis/2025/04/12/chatgpt-hits-1-billion-users-openai-ceo-says-doubled-in-weeks/">rapidly growing userbase</a>. "Something like 10 percent of the world uses our systems," Altman <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/sam_altman_openai_s_sam_altman_talks_chatgpt_ai_agents_and_superintelligence_live_at_ted2025/transcript">said during a public appearance back in April</a>. He's also frequently said that he believes OpenAI is on track to create an "artificial general intelligence" that would vastly exceed the cognitive capabilities of human beings.
Dr. Joseph Pierre, a psychiatrist at the University of California, previously told Futurism that this is a recipe for delusion.
"What I think is so fascinating about this is how willing people are to put their trust in these chatbots in a way that they probably, or arguably, wouldn't with a human being," Pierre said. "There's something about these things — it has this sort of mythology that they're reliable and better than talking to people. And I think that's where part of the danger is: how much faith we put into these machines."
At the end of the day, Pierre says, "LLMs are trying to just tell you what you want to hear."
Do you know anything about the conversation inside OpenAI about the mental health of its users? Drop us a line at <a href="mailto:tips@futurism.com">tips@futurism.com</a>. We can keep you anonymous.
The bottom line? AI is a powerful technology, and the industry behind it has rushed to deploy it at breakneck speed to carve out market share — even as experts continue to warn that they <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/03/05/1089449/nobody-knows-how-ai-works/">barely understand how it actually works</a>, nevermind the effects it might be having on users worldwide.
And the effects on people are real and tragic. In our previous reporting on the connection between AI and mental health crises, one woman told us how her marriage had fallen apart after her former spouse fell into a fixation on ChatGPT that spiraled into a severe mental health crisis.
"I think not only is my ex-husband a test subject," she said, "but that we're all test subjects in this AI experiment."
Maggie Harrison Dupré contributed reporting.
If you or a loved one are experiencing a mental health crisis, you can dial or text 988 to speak with a trained counselor. All messages and calls are confidential.
More on AI: <a href="https://futurism.com/mattel-announces-openai">As ChatGPT Linked to Mental Health Breakdowns, Mattel Announces Plans to Incorporate It Into Children's Toys</a>

CogSec

"I find it kind of disturbing even to watch it."

A Prominent OpenAI Investor Appears to Be Suffering a ChatGPT-Related Mental Health Crisis, His Peers Say

Experts at OpenAI and Anthropic are calling out Elon Musk and xAI for refusing to publish any safety research — and for potentially not having done any at all.
In the wake of Grok, xAI's chatbot, calling itself "MechaHitler" and publicly spewing a ton of racist and antisemitic vitriol, safety experts at those rival firms are, as <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/16/openai-and-anthropic-researchers-decry-reckless-safety-culture-at-elon-musks-xai/">flagged by TechCrunch</a>, extremely alarmed.
"I didn’t want to post on Grok safety since I work at a competitor, but it’s not about competition," <a href="https://x.com/boazbaraktcs/status/1945165577154175288">tweeted OpenAI safety researcher Boaz Barak</a>.
Barak, who also works as a Harvard computer scientist but is currently on leave to work at OpenAI, said that the scandal was "completely irresponsible" — and suggested that the "MechaHitler" incident may just be the tip of the iceberg.
"There is no system card, no information about any safety or dangerous capability [evaluations]," he said of Grok, noting that the chatbot "offers advice chemical weapons, drugs, or suicide methods" and suggesting that it's "unclear if any safety training was done."
"The 'companion mode' takes the worst issues we currently have for emotional dependencies and tries to amplify them," Barak added.
Shouting out Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta, and China's DeepSeek by name, the researcher noted that it's customary for such AI labs to publish what's referred to in the industry as system or model cards, which show how the people who made it evaluated it for safety. Musk's xAI, meanwhile, has published no such information about Grok 4, its latest update to the chatbot.
"Even DeepSeek R1, which can be easily jailbroken, at least sometimes requires jailbreak," Barak quipped.
The OpenAI researcher's sentiments were echoed by Samuel Marks, who works in a similar capacity at Anthropic.
"xAI launched Grok 4 without any documentation of their safety testing," <a href="https://x.com/saprmarks/status/1944455357629333938">Marks tweeted</a>. "This is reckless and breaks with industry best practices followed by other major AI labs."
Acknowledging that Google and OpenAI both "<a href="https://x.com/saprmarks/status/1944455362159014213">have issues</a>" of their own when it comes to safety evaluations — a nod to recent fiascos involving <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/15/openai-ships-gpt-4-1-without-a-safety-report/">those companies choosing</a> not to <a href="https://fortune.com/2025/04/09/google-gemini-2-5-pro-missing-model-card-in-apparent-violation-of-ai-safety-promises-to-us-government-international-bodies/">immediately release</a> their system cards — the researcher pointed out that in those cases, the safety testing at least had been undertaken.
"They at least do something, anything to assess safety pre-deployment and document findings," Marks wrote. "xAI does not."
Dan Hendrycks, an AI safety adviser at xAI, <a href="https://x.com/DanHendrycks/status/1943703394100850830">claimed on X</a> that it was "false" to suggest that Musk's company didn't do any "dangerous capability evals" — but as an anonymous researcher on the AI-focused LessWrong forum suggested, based on their own tests, that the chatbot appears to have "<a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/dqd54wpEfjKJsJBk6/xai-s-grok-4-has-no-meaningful-safety-guardrails">no meaningful safety guardrails</a>."
It's impossible to say whether or not xAI did any safety testing ahead of time — but as these researchers demonstrate, it doesn't matter much without any model card release.
More on AI safety research: <a href="https://futurism.com/top-ai-researchers-concerned">Top AI Researchers Concerned They’re Losing the Ability to Understand What They’ve Created</a>

Ring The Alarm

"It’s not about competition."

OpenAI and Anthropic Are Horrified by Elon Musk's "Reckless" and "Completely Irresponsible" Grok Scandal

President Donald Trump has undergone medical testing after photographs showed noticeable swelling in his ankles.
As the <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-79-had-emergency-heart-tests-because-of-swollen-legs/">Daily Beast reports</a>, the 79-year-old former reality TV personality was also seen with foundation covering his right hand during a July 15 press hearing, possibly to obscure bruising, as well the swelling in his lower legs, before the "emergency" testing.
However, Trump officials claim the septuagenarian is in overall good health.
"In recent weeks, President Trump noted mild swelling in his lower legs," press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday. "In keeping with routine medical care and out of an abundance of caution, this concern was thoroughly evaluated by the White House medical unit."
She said that Trump had a "benign and common condition" called Chronic Venous Insufficiency (CVI), which happens when damaged veins in the legs don't allow blood to return to the heart, allowing it to flow backwards.
Leavitt told reporters his evaluation included venous doppler ultrasound and an echocardiogram of his heart, which "confirmed normal cardiac structure and function."
Trump's health has long been the subject of discussion, particularly when it comes to his infamously fast-food-heavy diet. Yet, despite troubling clues that his health may be deteriorating, his administration has been adamant that his health remains "<a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/world/trump-diagnosed-chronic-venous-insufficiency">excellent</a>."
What his deteriorating health could mean for the presidency remains to be seen. However, his predecessor, former president Joe Biden, became the oldest president in American history at the ripe old age of 81, leading to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/21/biden-campaign-health-presidency/">significant public pressure</a> to abandon his bid for reelection.
Without treatment, CVI can lead to swelling, cramps, varicose legs, and leg ulcers, <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/chronic-venous-insufficiency">according to Johns Hopkins Medicine</a>. While it's "not a serious health threat," it can be "painful and disabling."
"You would not check an ultrasound unless he had varicose veins or leg swelling," Massachusetts General Hospital surgeon Sherry Scovell <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/17/trump-health-chronic-venous-insufficiency/">told the Washington Post</a>. "In the absence of that, many people could be walking around with CVI."
People who are overweight, have high blood pressure, sit or stand for long periods, and don't exercise are more likely to develop CVI.
Treatment conventionally includes keeping your legs elevated, wearing compression stockings, and regular exercise. Severe cases can be addressed surgically.
It's also not the first time we've <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/dark-bruise-trump-hand">observed bruising on Trump's hands</a>. Experts say the bruises are likely from an IV or blood drawing.
However, Leavitt told the Beast that the bruise is due to "minor soft tissue irritation from frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin, which is taken as part of a standard cardiovascular prevention regimen."
More on Trump's health: <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/dark-bruise-trump-hand">Dark Mark Appears on Trump's Hand</a>

Varicose Veins President

It appears to be a condition in which blood struggles to return to the heart, instead flowing backwards.

Trump Undergoes Emergency Heart Tests After Swelling Detected

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse for Tesla's Cybertruck, sales for the controversial pickup truck are circling the drain after dropping off a cliff.
In numbers, the Elon Musk-owned automaker sold just 4,306 Cybertrucks in the second quarter of 2025, according to the <a href="https://www.coxautoinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Q2-2025-Kelley-Blue-Book-EV-Sales-Report.pdf">latest data</a> from Cox Automotive's Kelley Blue Book — a stunning 50.8 percent nosedive from the same period last year.
It's also a big dip from the quarter before, when Tesla eked out a barely more respectable <a href="https://www.coxautoinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Q1-2025-Kelley-Blue-Book-EV-Sales-Report-04-11-25.pdf">6,406 Cybertrucks</a> (<a href="https://futurism.com/cybertruck-sales-bad">another estimate</a> nudges the number up to around 7,100).
In total, Tesla has sold a measly 10,712 Cybertrucks this year, meaning it's nowhere near matching the 39,900 units it delivered in 2024. And it's not even in the same hemisphere as Musk's <a href="https://insideevs.com/news/667723/musk-estimates-tesla-could-sell-250000-500000-cybertrucks-yearly/">characteristically ambitious prediction</a> that the automaker would somehow sell up to half a million of the EV trucks per year.
Unfulfilled promises sum up the Cybertruck's woes, whose bold styling and stainless steel exterior, once a unique selling point, have now singled out the vehicles for <a href="https://futurism.com/rent-cybertruck-flipped-off">instant</a> <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/maine-cybertruck-hate">ridicule</a>. 
Musk originally told his fans that it would sell for an affordable price tag of around $40,000. But the <a href="https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/08/the-cheapest-tesla-cybertruck-is-99990-promised-60k-model-canceled/">first Cybertrucks</a> were sold for no less than an eyewatering $100,000. This year, Tesla started offering a stripped down <a href="https://electrek.co/2025/04/10/tesla-new-cybertruck-rwd-price-removes-cool-features/">rear wheel drive version</a> for $70,000 to inspire sales, but the gambit appears to have failed.
Promises that the truck would be "<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharyfolk/2023/11/30/elon-musk-boasts-cybertruck-is-apocalypse-proof-at-live-delivery-event/">apocalypse-proof</a>" have also turned out to be a bust. The Cybertruck has been hit with <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-cybertruck-recall-piece-flying-off">eight recalls</a> so far, for reasons ranging from its accelerator pedal getting stuck in the down position to losing power while driving, to its <a href="https://futurism.com/cybertruck-held-together-glue">glued-on body panels</a> flying off.
Drivers have reported their rides getting bricked after taking <a href="https://futurism.com/cybertruck-brick-car-wash">them through a car wash</a> — remember when Musk <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/cybertruck-drives-into-harbor">teased</a> they could double as a boat? — and even <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/automotive-test-cybertruck-critical-issue">brand new ones</a> straight off the dealership lot have <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/cybertruck-owners-forum-breakdowns">ended up on the back of a tow truck</a>. It's also horrendous at <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/cybertruck-struggles-drive-dirt-road">off-roading</a> and <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/cybertruck-puddle-sound">driving through shallow puddles</a>, making it a <a href="https://futurism.com/doomsday-preppers-cybertruck-apocalypse">horrible pick</a> for a doomsday scenario.
Tesla is also suffering a crisis of reputation, as Musk <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-problem-elon-musk-image">drags its name through the mud</a> with his chaotic dalliance with the Trump administration and his ceaseless spewing of far-right politics. 
Overall, the Cybertruck is quickly losing ground in the electric truck space, where pricetags are often <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/07/tesla-gm-rivian-and-ford-the-100000-electric-truck-market-is-here">north of $100,000</a>. It's being outsold by the GMC <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/hummer-ev-turn-four-wheels-drive-sideways">EV Hummer</a>, of which 4,306 were sold in the second quarter, a promising 53.9 percent bump from last year, per Cox's latest numbers.
A more conventional EV truck, the Chevrolet Silverado, is also trending upward with a 39.2 percent boost, though it remains behind with 3,056 sales. Meanwhile, the Ford F-150 Lightning, the best-seller in this category, saw its sales fall by 26.1 percent, down to 5,842 units sold. Making the Cybertruck look good, however, is the Rivian R1T, which is clinging on to a paltry total of 1,752 units sold, which is barely more than half the sales from Q2 2024. 
So congratulations to the Cybertruck: it's not the absolute least desirable of its ilk in the market right now — but it's almost certainly the most polarizing.
More on Tesla: <a href="https://futurism.com/top-execs-fleeing-tesla">Top Execs Fleeing Tesla as Dark Clouds Grow</a>

Flop Like a Fish

A familiar tale that somehow just keeps getting worse.

Cybertruck Sales Are Dead in the Water

If you're a red-blooded, burger-chompin', freedom-lovin' American, you gotta check out Donald Trump Junior's innovative new company, GrabAGun.
Calling itself "the Amazon of Guns," GrabAGun is revolutionizing the way Americans hoard firearms, offering shoppers a virtual arsenal of pistols, shotguns, rifles, and muzzleloaders shipped straight to their front door.
Though there are nearly 78,000 <a href="https://everytownresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2023/07/Inside-the-Gun-Shop-One-Pager.pdf">brick and mortar gun dealers</a> in the US — more than the number of McDonald's, Burger Kings, Subways, and Wendy's stores combined — GrabAGun is entirely online. That's pretty hip!
But how is this different from the thousands of other <a href="https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/industry/online-gun-ammunition-sales/5937/">eCommerce gun websites</a> already on the web, you ask? Well, this one's traded on the New York Stock Exchange, for one. And in case you missed it, Donald Trump Jr is sitting on the executive board. Is that enough for you?
Because it sure wasn't for investors, who snubbed GrabAGun when it opened for public trading on the NYSE Wednesday morning.
"To be able to come back to the New York Stock Exchange and actually take a gun company public feels like such a vindication of all the insanity, all of the 'woke' nonsense that we've been watching and facing for the last decade in America," Trump Jr <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/6375709724112">told Fox Business</a> before the markets opened.
After ringing the opening bell — but not before <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/16/trump-jr-grabagun-stock-gun-merger.html">starting a chant</a> of "USA! USA!" — Trump Jr got a front-row seat to watch his pet project plummet into the ground.
Though shares of GrabAGun opened at $21.40 — under the cutesy ticker "PEW," no less — they quickly dropped around 24 percent after a short spike, <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/shares-of-donald-trump-jr-backed-grabagun-falter-in-nyse-trading-debut-11773771">ending the day</a> at $13.20. Shares slid further the second day, to around <a href="https://www.tradingview.com/chart/?symbol=PEW">$10.2o</a> at the time of writing, though Trump Jr's <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2051380/000121390025056770/ea0233554-10.htm">equity compensation</a> is still worth a little over $3 million.
However, while Trump Jr's dopey antics are like a siren song for the mainstream press — remember that <a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/donald-trump-jr-severed-elephant-tail-photo/">horrific photo</a> of him brandishing a severed elephant's tail? — GrabAGun's stock flop might have more to do with its merger with Colombier Acquisition Corp. II, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.
A SPAC is basically a shortcut to taking a company public. First, executives raise money through a shell company — <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250715500165/en/GrabAGun-a-Mobile-Focused-Online-Firearms-Retailer-and-Defender-of-the-Second-Amendment-Completes-Business-Combination-with-Colombier-II-and-Will-Begin-Trading-on-NYSE">$179 million</a>, in this case — then merge with the entity looking to fast-track an IPO, in this case GrabAGun.
Financial analysts have argued that, after a merger, SPACs almost always result in <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/10/unusual-first-day-rallies-in-spacs-raise-bubble-concern-every-single-one-of-them-has-gone-up.html">negative returns</a> for all but the earliest investors, making them the weapon of choice for <a href="https://mergersandinquisitions.com/great-spac-scam/">sleazy celebrity dealmakers</a> like Trump Jr. Though he'll likely still <a href="https://investors.grabagun.com/news/news-details/2025/GrabAGun-Nominates-Donald-Trump-Jr--and-Post-Closing-Board-of-Directors-and-Advances-Plans-for-Upcoming-Public-Listing/default.aspx">sit on the board</a> for the foreseeable future, it's pretty obvious that GrabAGun is yet another <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-mobile-cell-phone-profit-off-presidency-1235365459/">cynical cash-grab</a> by Trump senior's darling boy.
The likelihood of GrabAGun rallying seems slim, especially given the <a href="https://labusinessjournal.com/featured/market-shifts-away-from-spacs/">noxious stigma</a> SPACs have earned over the past five years. But as far as the president's spawn is concerned, it seems the apple hasn't fallen <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-memecoin-lost-money">too far from the tree</a>.
More on guns: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/americans-rednote-3d-printed-guns">Americans Flood Chinese Social App, Teach Users to 3D Print Guns</a>